h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Anybody seen the adverts on british TV.

Build a model of hte bismark from Balsa. First issue just 99p !!

The other 140+ issues cost £5 each.

140 !!!!!!

Who would spend £5 a week for 3 years to make a balsa model of a boat?

Who thinks that after 8 months the compnay will just get bored and stop producing the damm things?

Why don't you just buy a plastic kit for 5% of the price ?

I´ve seen these things before, but never over 140 issues. That is certainly a lot. I´d rather buy a proper model ship.

It's only £700 for a wooden replica.

Alternatively you could buy a number of sheets of balsa wood for around £50 and make a couple of them and flog one on e-bay for that fool who missed issue 137.

Care in the community and all that!



At least the Magazine publishers are now saying how much the magazines really are, and how many have to be bought for the set.

Never happened when I was a kid. Just got suckered in!



Never did complete them...

I think what they are selling is the magazine, with the magic balsa bits as an added extra. For your fiver you will get a snazzy publication with all the history, sizes, artillery etc etc, plus the added extra of the anticipation of waiting for it every week for your next bit.

You *could* do it in 2 issues:

1. It was built

2. It sank

but that's not really appealing to the boat building masses! (are there masses? The publishers obviously think so)

They had the same thing in Australia a few years ago with a plane. I figured it out, it would've cost something like $2000 to finish it. We laughed at the one person we saw buying it.

In New Zealand they have a skeleton one now, it doesn't say how many issues there are, but considering there are 206 bones in the human body, and each issue (except the first) is $15, it could cost more than $3000, for some cheap plastic model you could get at the two dollar shop.

We've been wondering about that too. Some of these "partwork" things don't seem so bad - I remember my mum collecting and making about 20 teddys with clothes which kept her happy. But - and why the Bismark (sp?) they could have picked a British ship for British model makers, surely?

These things, in one form or another, have being doing the rounds for ages. The '99p for the first issue with your free tatty binder, 2.99 each subsequent issue' principal has extended, in recent years, to:

-Dogs
-Morse
-The Napoleonic War
-Midsommer Murders (why?)
-The Tree of Knowledge

Etc... the list goes on. There must be a market of really dim people, and, to be fair, people like to collect stuff, don't they, I guess it gives you a sort of sense of purpose, or something.

I vaguely remember there being one just after Christmas this year on knitting.... quite why anyone would believe it a good idea to collect it is beyond me, a few quid in a local bookstore, and you've got a couple of books on the 'how ' to knit, a quick trip into the local knitting shop place and wow, they sell wool and needles and everything

Yes it probably is just about giving people something to look forward to.

who was the comedian who did the bit about the 'antique' fob watch collection version of these? As he rightly pointed out '2.99' for a watch, not really going to be that good is it?

Well, a cheap digital Casio is supposed to keep better time than those expensive semi-mechanical Omega and Rolex watches.

Against the advice of my parents I collected War Machine during the late 80s. I think they went the way of the bootsale. One serious waste of money, and I didn't even get to make a wooden ship!

Xanatic, yes, but none of those are supposed to be 'antique' or 'classic' fob watches which, by definition, are clockwork.

I am currently collecting rejection letters. Every week I get a letter from a different company, with eleaborate engraved letter heading and individually tailored reply (they scribble my name in the space at the top) all telling me why they aren't interested in taking my application any further. The first one was only 99p, and I get to collect them all in a stylish binder which, after only 52 weeks, will be heavy enough for me to take to the job centre (I'm sorry, jobcentre plus, they're much more helpful than the old people) and beat someone over the head with until they give me some money.

oh me too!

I'm thinkig of papering the downstairs loo with mine

Don't bother, they're not very absorbent.

I'm thinking of using the back of the last one to write my letter of application for the next job

It will probably save time and paper if every letter sent has a rejection letter ready on the back, then all your rejector has to do is turn the letter over, sign it and return it to you.

perhaps it would appeal to the lazy employeers if you had an acceptance letter on the back that they only had to sign!

now that would be showing initiative... only my last application was mostly by email...